Success and great memories with my dad

SilverEagle

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I killed this buck on the 5th morning of the hunt. We saw shooter bucks every day and I actually passed on this buck the night before. Dawn on Wednesday morning found us looking over the same 7 bucks and about 9am I asked my dad, ?Dad, do you want shoot that buck?? He said exactly what I knew he was going to say. Without looking up from his Vortex Diamondbacks he said ?you go ahead?.

A little background; my dads? only pulled the trigger on one buck in the last 15 years. Once during Muzzleloader season I spent nearly an hour talking him into a mature 4x5 with a 2? little kicker on his right G2. He had huge fronts and a square frame. The short story is we learned a hard lesson about smokepole hunting in the snow, no need to explain.
After the prerequisite photographs (I recommend a Bluetooth camera shutter for taking field photos), we quartered and caped my buck and packed him to the trailhead. That's when we met Pennsylvania Tom.

I crossed paths with Tom a couple more times that day. Here?s what I learned about him; he was hunting alone from a tent and a rented 2015 Chevy Tahoe, maybe you've seen it, it's the white one with long deep scratches down the sides, I think those are called ?Rocky Mountain pinstripes?. He told us he once had to pay a $1200 dollar cleaning fee because of elk blood in the carpet and a dent from a pole in a campground that ?wasn?t supposed to be there!? He was hilarious and I hope to see him again. If you're wondering, he killed his buck. Tom hiked 3 miles in the dark from his rental truck for that buck. Funny thing is that he killed his buck only 560yards from another trailhead.

We had competition. The camp next to us was after stud bucks as well. There was the typical tension between us. But that didn't last long. These guys were leaving early and hiking hard all day long for bucks farther than we wanted to go. Once some bucks were hanging the rivalry faded respect and camaraderie took its place. We visited their camp and they visited ours. Turns out that they were fathers and sons too! Campfire stories of bygone hunts turned to heartfelt discussion of the importance of making memories with our sons, our fathers, grandsons, and grandfathers.

We hunted hard for a few more days and met some interesting and genuine people along the way. Putting the 2015 deer season behind us should be a little bittersweet but it's not. We spent quality time together and punched a tag. On our last hike back to camp I joked, ?guess we can start getting ready for next year?.? Love you Dad.

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SE,

This hits home for me. Hope you know (sounds like it) how lucky you are (and we both know I'm not talking about punching your tag on a nice deer). Lost my dad unexpectedly in '10. Damn how I miss him! Enjoy times like this! Thanks for sharing your story & pics.

eg


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"A man can be hard to find in the mountains, but you're welcome at my fire anytime."
 
Great story. Congrats on a hunt with your dad. That Cape is what you want a big buck to be wearing. Awesome.
 
Nice buck and even better sharing it with the "ole man". Don't take one day of hunting with him for granted because some day he won't be there to enjoy it with you.
 

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